


Thanks for Helping Out

by holdinglines



Series: Babysitters Club [1]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Babysitting, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Gen, Parent-Child Relationship, Unreliable Narrator, an assassin a teen engineer and 2 human babies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 02:30:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11614059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holdinglines/pseuds/holdinglines
Summary: Shepard meets a friend from Mindoir, grown and with kids.  And the only way for them to have a proper heart to heart is if someone (or someones) are willing to watch her kids for her.





	Thanks for Helping Out

_Another successful mission._

 Shepard held back while the ground team exited the shuttle, double checking the supplies they’d picked up on-planet before she was ushered off by the pilot.

 “‘Preciate the concern, ma’am,” they said.  “But if ya do this after _every_ mission and some a us might start ‘t think you don’t trust us to do our jobs.”

 Shepard quirked a smile.  “Didn’t mean that at all, Rainer.  Sorry to make you worry like that.”

 “O-oh, no!  Not at all, ma’am!  Just meant it as like a, like a joke, don’t you worry pleasedon’ttakeitthewrongwayI’msorryma’am.”

 “No harm done mate,” Shepard patted their shoulder and hopped off.  Samara and Grunt were halfway done getting their armor off already.

 Shepard was halfway through getting her own armor off when Joker’s voice could be heard over the intercom.

 “Uh, Commander?  Could you come up to the cockpit real quick?”

 “Is it an emergency?” she hollered.

 Joker made a vague noise that practically sounded like someone waving their hand.  “I guess that’ll be up to you?  Maybe?  I guess.  Joker out.”

 She sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose and counted to ten.   _No rest for the wicked._

 Shepard hurried after Samara to the elevator, while Grunt went down the stairs to where Jack lurked.

 “You are about to have quite a mess on your hands,” Samara said.

 “I messaged Jack and Zaeed while we were in the shuttle.  And EDI should have reminded them, so...it shouldn’t be that big of a mess,” Shepard shot a look at the pad above the elevator buttons.  “Right, EDI?”

 “Of course Shepard,” a cool synthesized voice said.  “Both Jack and Zaeed were unhappy to be awoken, but they have been alerted of Grunt’s presence.  Would you like me to sync the security cameras to your omnitool?”

 Shepard waved her hand.  “Nah, just let me know if things get too heated.  Thanks, EDI.”

 “Anytime, Commander.”

 The doors _pinged_ and opened to the mess hall, but as Samara began to step off Shepard grabbed her hand.

 “You got shot while we were on that planet.” the look Shepard gave her left no room for argument.  Samara sighed and stepped back onto the elevator.

 “Samara I--”

 “I am not switching to new armor, Shepard.”

 “ _Samara please_.”

 Samara couldn’t help but smile a little at the commander’s distressed tone.  But just as quickly as it had appeared it vanished as she composed herself.

 “Your concern is appreciated, Shepard, but I assure you this was a one time thing.”

 “It sure as hell hasn’t.  Unless you find a better way to medicate or protect yourself, the armor has to go.”

 Samara swivelled around and gave an icy glare.  She may be honor bound to serve the commander, but she would _not_ allow such disregard for her way of life.  “This is more than just armor, Shepard.  This is a part of me.  A part of who I am.  It’s a symbol to my people, and signifies my allegiance to the Jus--”

 The doors _pinged_ and opened.  Two ensigns paused mid sentence to stare at the asari warrior and their commander, mid-staredown.

 “We’ll, uh, we’ll take the next one,” one of them said.

 Shepard finally broke her gaze away from Samara and gave both of them an easy smile.  “No need...Vega.  Sanders.  We’re getting off here.  Oh, and can you wake Jonas up instead?”

 “Sure, but, um, why?  Smith usually takes over our shift.”

 “I saw Jonas doing double shifts last time I was doing rounds.  Plus I think Gardner got ‘em to be his taste tester.” she chuckled.  “I think they deserved a bit more bed time.”

 Both ensigns seemed much more relaxed and seemed to sympathize with Jonas.  They promised to let Jonas rest more and waved them off as they left for the doctor’s office.

 The moment the door closed behind them Shepard was back in business mode.

 “Ok, I get it.  I don’t understand, but I get that the armor is important to you.  Maybe we can compromise a bit?”

 Samara glanced at her warily.  “What do you recommend?”

 “Maybe some mods or enhancements?  Or would that be sacrilegious?”

 Shepard watched with satisfaction as the tension began to melt out of Samara’s shoulders.  Personally she loved those small snippets of humor from her, but if she pushed her too much then she’d put up even more walls between them.  It was slow going, but it was nice to see progress.

 “It would not be.  However that feels a bit more...personal than I am comfortable with.”

 Shepard nodded.  “I should go.”

 They parted ways, Samara to visit Dr. Solus, Shepard up to the cockpit where Joker was waiting for her.  She leaned against his leather seat and peeked over his shoulder.

 “What’s the story?”

 “That’s the story,” he said pointing at the screen.  It was a dot (which she guessed was the _Normandy_ ) being approached by what looked like a tower of dots.

 “That’s bad?”

 “Yeah.  Real bad.”

 “Hm,” she rested her chin on the top of his head.  “Somebody should look into that.”

 “I mean, you _are_ the captain of a terrorist ship.  You don’t _gotta,_ but if you _wanna_ you might wanna get movin’.”

 “Don’t be an ass,” she said playfully and pushed herself up.  “Let’s try to flank them, get an idea what they might want.”

 “Stealth systems are already engaged, we could bypass them no problem.”

 “I don’t know, Joker.  Do we even know what it is?”

 “Buncha dots, Commander.”

 “What did I say about being an ass.”

 He shrugged.  “If you want my humble opinion ma’am, looks like a freighter ship.  And it looks like it’s got a mini armada tucked under its armpit.”

 Shepard paused and turned around.

 EDI’s lights flashed.  “Really, Mr. Moreau?  Was that the best you could muster?”

 “Cripes, were you listening in again?”

 “I am always listening, Mr. Moreau.”

 Joker looked up at Shepard helplessly and mouthed, ‘creepy’.

 Shepard smiled and shrugged helplessly, and walked away.  Right now they had to plan the next mission.

 Being on a spaceship for extended periods of time tended to skew peoples perception of time, and the  _ Normandy _ crew was no exception.  They so rarely touched ground or spent much time on stations -aside from her and her small teams for recon missions- that it was difficult to get everyone on the same schedule.  Most people were did their own thing, but Shepard had insisted on most of the ‘Suicide Squad’, as Joker called them, have some sort of system so a few of them were awake at all times in case of an emergency.

 Shepard reached her terminal, and waved over it to activate EDI.

 “Hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”

 “I always have time for you, Commander.”

 “Cute, did Kelly teach you that?” she glanced to the side to see if the therapist was paying attention.  Seemed she was neck deep in internet tabs and had some headphones in.  Shepard noted to reprimand her later.

 “I have been told that is an appropriate response to superior officers.”

 “Do you know why?”

 The AI paused.  “No, I don’t.”

 “Maybe that’ll help?”

 “Did my response bother you, Commander?”

 “Just don’t want you repeating everything you hear.  So I’m gonna ask again: did I bother you?  I know you and Joker were having a conversation.”

 “I feel like disagreements hardly constitute as conversations,” EDI said testily before she caught herself.  “If you were so concerned about interrupting us however, why leave?”

 “I wanted to check on some things.” to drive her point home she pulled up some emails and schematics of the  _ Normandy _ .

 “I see.  Here is a list of who’s available for a mission, Commander.”

 Shepard glanced up, even though there was no body for her to look at.  “I didn’t even ask yet.”

 “I thought you were insinuating I ‘skip the pleasantries’, as it were.”

 “EDI,” she said.  “Was that a joke?”

 “Possibly.”

* * *

 

 

 After Shepard double checked scans EDI and Joker managed to get of the ship and reran the calibrations on the main systems guns in case things turned sour (and they always did), she made her way to the mess hall for one last check up.

 “Commander, Operative Lawson has locked the door to her office.  She has instructed me to stop any disturbances in her work.”

 “Is her work sound or light sensitive?”

 “No.”

 “Is it harmful to the crew or ship?”

 “No.”

 “Does she want some privacy?”

 “I would assume that to be the case.”

 Shepard paused.  On one hand she had the utmost respect for Miranda Lawson, and couldn’t deny her work ethic was top notch.  But now she had the greatest need to barge in and annoy her.

 “EDI, open the door.”

 “Shepard-”

 “When she gets angry, you can blame it all on me.”

 The AI didn’t respond, so Shepard tried her luck and marched to her XO’s office.  To her immense relief it opened for her.

 “God  _ dammit _ EDI didn’t I tell you that I didn’t want any-”

 “Shepard made me.”

 She laughed and closed the door behind her.  “It’s true, don’t yell too much at EDI, Miranda.”

 “Shepard.” Miranda almost scowled, but seemed to decide halfway that it wasn’t worth the effort.

 On any other day, she was the epitome of perfection: well-manicured hair, impeccable makeup, good posture, everything carefully constructed to make her look too beautiful to be real and too intimidating to approach.    Right now she was none of those things.  No makeup, hunched over several different files with the lights dimmed, the sickly orange glow of her omni-tool and computer screen giving her an other worldly appearance.

 Thankfully she seemed too stressed to be angry with her.  She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, the other rubbing her eyes.  “What are you doing here?”

 “Wanted to hand in a copy of last mission report.”

 “Ah, well, thank you.  If that’s all I have some things to do.”

 “Yeah, about that,” Shepard moved to behind her chair, hit the save key and shut off her monitor.  “You look about as bad as I feel, and I can’t have that.  Only one of us can be miserable at a time.”

 “Shepard-”

 “No ‘buts’, Miranda.  You’re to take a quick rest period starting immediately.  I’ll be off the ship, but Jacob is on duty to watch the ship for us.”

 Miranda stood up.  “You’re leaving again?  Already?  Is something wrong?”

 Shepard did a double take.  “You did hear Joker over the intercom earlier, right?”

 “He…” she blinked and pulled her hair back.  She glanced around, like the answer was hidden somewhere in her office.  “He did?”

 “Yes, Miranda.  Actually, I take it back.  You’re taking a full three hour nap right now.”

 Miranda put a hand on Shepard’s shoulder.  “Commander, you just got back from setting an oil refractory on fire.  I think, between the two of us, you might need that nap more than me.”

 “I’m on an adrenaline high, I’ll be fine,” she casually shrugged off her hand from her shoulder.  “I was serious too.  We need one of us clear headed, and you can’t do it if you’re running on fumes.”

 She looked ready to argue so Shepard cupped her face in her hands, angling Miranda’s head ever so slightly downwards to look her Commander in the eyes.

 “I mean it.  Get some sleep.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I think that ending was more directed at myself than anything, but meh I want them off the ship in the next chapter and onto the plot so ya.


End file.
